BSA,
Honestly, when I said I wasn't looking for a fight, I meant it. I was simply making an observation for the sake of discussion, not a criticism.
As far as side by side, I did do that once, and more or less for the specific purpose of comparing recoil. Both rifles were Model 70s, both were in the same model of Brown Precision stock. My friend's .338 was a push feed rifle with a Shilen barrel. I don't know the contour, but it was not particularly light. If anything, it was a bit on the heavy side. When he re-barreled, he didn't go light as he didn't want anymore recoil than the rifle with the factory weight barrel. My .300 is a Classic Stainless BOSS gun, but I use the CR Conventional Recoil weight as I don't like the noise of the muzzle brake. I don't remember his scope, but it was not a heavy 50mm objective. I think it was a Leupold 3-9x40. Mine was a Leupold 3.5-10x40. I was shooting either 180 grain factory loads or 180 grain handloads at a measured 3000 fps. I don't remember what he had loaded up, but he had kind of sworn off the 250s, so I'm guessing 225. We had often remarked over the years how similar our two rifles were. Our specific purpose that day was he was curious about muzzle brakes. So we shot my .300 with the brake and with the CR weight, and we shot his .338. He shot all three configurations. I don't remember if I shot the muzzle brake or not, as I never use it, and never plan to use it. My hearing is screwed up enough already. He and I are both engineers with a good bit of shooting experience. Most of my professional career was in ballistics research, running a two-stage light gas gun. He worked for Tracking Point for a while. I offer this only to suggest we are not inexperienced and we try to be analytical and fair in our observations. Our consensus that day was the muzzle brake works well but is damn loud, too loud for either of us to like it if you weren't wearing ear protection. As far as recoil with the CR weight on the .300 compared to the .338, we thought the .338 had enough more recoil that you would say "Yeah, that's more." It wasn't a lot more, but it was more. Those two rifles weren't twins, but they were darn close. As you have pointed out, a lot of how a rile kicks you is in the stock design. These were stocked exactly alike. If they hadn't have been similar, we wouldn't have bothered doing what we did. Of course, one could mess with the loads to get a different result, but we were comparing our usual hunting loads.
I respect your opinions and posts on this forum, so if you say the .300 WM kicks you substantially harder than the .338 WM, I'm not going to argue. After all, you are the one behind the gun getting kicked. But I will say that your observations do not seem to match my observations. I can also trot out a bunch of math. The "doc" part of my screen name is legit. But nobody much cares about the math.
I'm more about liking one rifle compared to another, so I don't tend to get into "good cartridge, bad cartridge" arguments. I like the .270 because it works and I grew up reading JOC. A light one is easy to carry and doesn't kick the snot out of me. I like the .300 because to me it is a definite step up from the .270. But you have to be willing to go with a longer barrel to take advantage of the case volume. Otherwise, just use a .30-06. And a light .300 or a light .338 might get old quick. I wouldn't be building a 9.3x62 if I didn't think it was worthy. But if someone else loves the .280, .300 Norma, .338 WM, .35 Whelen or anything else, it's all good. We kill stuff by putting good bullets in the right place.
As for my comment that the .300 WM and the 9.3x62 are in different classes, I can offer that there are many more .300 WM long range target or sniper rifles than 9.3x62. On the flip side, while some say the 9.3x62 can in some situations be a pretty good substitute for .375 H&H, few would offer that complement/comparison to the .300 WM.
As for your offer to get into a contest, I'm not sure what it would prove. It sure wouldn't prove one cartridge is better than another. You do put together some very nice rifles and it is clear you can shoot. I ask you this. If you can do anything and do it better with your 9.3x62 compared to the .300 WM, what can you do with your .338 WM better than with your 9.3x62?
Again, not looking for a fight, just a gentlemanly discussion. I wasn't trying to call you out. On the rare occasion that I think someone is full of crap and I choose to call them on it, I'm pretty clear about it. Peace.
Gun Doc
Last edited by GunDoc7; 01/25/15.
